For
me it's always hard to imagine sailing during winter. That the same icy,
lifeless marina can be sun-filled and bustling. That there
was a time, not too long ago, when I was sanding fiberglass in the sun,
looking down to see my sweating, sun burnt arms sparkling with glass. In
February, the boats are lined up on jack stands and bedded down under
white plastic shrink wrap with stanchions and spars poking out like
bones. The docks are frozen into the water, and there is not a sound
except for the occasional boom trains carrying fuel over the
Rondout Creek on the elevated, rusted-out railroad bridge. The boat is in
a million pieces and in just as many places, a sort of Venn diagram of a
project with the gutted hull at the center.
It is perfect weather for nesting, for daydreaming about the
interior that will be our cozy, warm, perfectly squared away home for the next
year or more. I am happy to say we are well on our way and have already made
such a difference. At the end of the workday I clean up and look over the
We didn't know much about the history of Tortuga when we bought her. We have found out more due to the dedication of Bud and the Westsail Association. He seemingly knows everything about each Westsail out there. What we had heard was that the previous owner went mad and returned to Ireland. Seriously. Inside the boat, if this is possible, I could see evidence of his downward spiral in the carpentry. It was really bad, and everything he fixed or replaced, had this Whatever, I'm a bachelor kind of feeling. The nav station was a half-built, roughly cut desk that collapsed most times you touched it and one dinette seat just had a rectangle sawed out. This provided excellent access to storage below, but might be a little rough on the backside of a breakfast eater. The upper starboard bunk had been torn out and cheap plywood installed as a back rest for the lower bunk. Every crevice was filled with a mysterious greasy gunk and, maybe most disheartening of all, there were no cushions and no one, except a crazy man in Ireland apparently, knew where they had been stashed.
So, we set to work. Max and I, but mostly Max, poured over interior sketches of Westsails, and we decided what we wanted it to look like. We would reincarnate the upper starboard bunk and build a navigation station where one could sit and face aft having the instrument panel directly in front. I would rip the linoleum surface out of the galley (it had taken on a sort of uneven, jaundiced color), and replace it with something beautiful. I found a free, almost complete, set of cushions. (again, Bud from the Westsail Association) and will only have to make four more. This list continues, but I think it is most helpful to other sailors to see the way that we were able to cut pieces of wood to the strange dimensions necessary, how we replaced doors and drawers, and got the different pieces of wood to look like they belonged among the originals.
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| Terry Baldwin in his shop in Stanfordville, NY. |
One
of the great benefits of sailing life in the Hudson Valley is that we have
no shortage of master craftsmen. They are always ready to support young,
dreamy-eyed sailors and we often call on them for advice, tools, and materials.
For the interior we contacted the incomparable Terry Baldwin, and stopped by
his incredible shop for a cocktail and a lesson on interior marine carpentry.
He taught us the following multi-step process for rebuilding, or finishing, parts
of the boat that included the curvature of the hull. I'll have Max write this
part, but the general idea is that the spaces within the boat where wood needs
to be added may be curved and are not in anyway level. Through a 3 step
process one can make sure to get the shape correct without wasting the
expensive wood. Here is how it is done...
Materials:
-1/4”
Lauan Plywood
-Staple Gun with ½” staples
-1/2”
MDF Board
-Jig Saw
-1/2”
Hardwood Plywood
-Router
-Assortment
of Scrap Plywood
-Top Bearing Flush Cut Router Bit
-Compass
(drawing tool)
-Small nails or nail gun
Process:
1.Rip Lauan into 4”, 6”, and 8” wide boards
- 2.Cut board down to
approximate length of curved surface you would like to form to. For deeper
curves use wider boards, for sallower curves use thinner boards.
- 3. Hold the board’s edge
tight against the curved surface. The edge should only touch the surface
at two points.
- 4. Open the compass so
that it’s slightly wider than the largest gap between the curved surface and
the inboard edge of the board. Always hold the compass in either the
vertical position
or the horizontal position. Never
hold it at an angle.
- 5. From one end of the
board, guide the compass along the curved surface while simultaneously making a
mark on the board. This is called scribing. The line on the
board should resemble the curved surface in section. Remember to hold the
compass vertically or horizontally.
- 6. Cut the board along
the marked line with a jig saw.
-
- 7. With the board fit
tight against the curved surface, staple it to
a scrap piece of plywood that is
approximately 75% the size of the piece you are trying to make.
- 8. Continue these steps
for all edges of the piece you are trying
to make. You should end up with one
piece of scrap plywood with multiple pieces of Lauan stapled to it around the
edges. We will call this a stencil. Take the stencil, place it on
the MDF board and trace the edge with a pencil.
9. Cut along the edge with a jig saw. We will call this piece the template.
10. Test the template by
fitting it against the curved surfaces you scribed from. The template
should fit tight against all surfaces simultaneously. If your satisfied
with the fit, continue, if not try again.
|
- 11. Tack the template to
the hardwood plywood with a nail gun.
- 12. Adjust the depth of
the flush cut router bit so that the ball bearing is guided by the edge of the
template
- 13. Router around all
edges of the template.
- 14. Remove the template
from the final piece.
- 15. Test the fit of the
final piece. It should fit at least as well as your template. If it doesn't, start over from the beginning.
